Redesigning How You Manage Your Finances at Betterment

If you’re a customer, you might notice that we’ve changed Betterment’s interface significantly over the last few months. We’ve improved how you view the accounts you hold at other firms. We’ve updated our tools for retirement planning. And now, we’ve introduced a new design when you log in to Betterment to help you manage your finances more effectively.

How We’re Improving Betterment for Customers

We’re changing three major elements of what Betterment looks like when you’re logged in to manage your finances.

A new navigation menu designed to help give you a birds-eye view of your goals.

Clearer information about your goals with less clicks.

An easy-to-view experience when you’re reviewing your investments on a tablet or mobile phone.

Get started with Betterment

Get acquainted with the new menu.

The menu, which sits at the left of your screen on larger devices, gives you easier access to the parts of your finances that use most:

Your goals

Important documents

Performance information

Our personalized advice

With each of your goals aligned in front of you when you’re logged in, you can organize your finances by purpose and prioritize which goals you need to set next.

See the details of your financial goals more easily.

Before we redeveloped the design, we learned from customers that they struggled to understand Betterment advice for each of their goals. We heard that you sometimes couldn’t easily access the most pertinent information, and that you really had to dig to compare your goals.

When you click on a financial goal from the menu, you get an array of information immediately:

The plan for your goal

Our analysis of the goal’s portfolio—across both external accounts and Betterment accounts

Holdings in the goal portfolio

Activity—like dividend payouts and reinvestments—occurring for the goal

Performance for the goal, as measured by percentage value or total returns in dollars

Our approach: Help you understand your goals with less clicks between login and the information you need.

Get a better experience on smaller devices.

Another insight that went into our updated design is that many customers log in to Betterment on smaller devices to manage their finances. So, we’re making it easier to get around for those users.

Whether you’re using Betterment on a smartphone, outside of our mobile app, or using a tablet, we’ve built this design to help set you up for greater success.

Improvement can feel disruptive. Why the redesign?

We recognize that change, regardless of how new and exciting it may be, is inherently disruptive. And we’ve done a lot of it as of late.

But why so much change? Why now?

This new look and feel is the culmination of over a year of ideating and designing after listening to your feedback. That’s where this list of reasons why we made these changes begins and ends:

Reason Why #1 of 1: You told us to.

We’re obsessed with your feedback, and we’ve heard from hundreds of our customers about making Betterment easier to use. We pour over that feedback and find the patterns. We meet with customers regularly to ensure that their voices are in the conversation. Even the smallest of changes goes through the gauntlet to ensure that it’s clear, concise, and empathetic.

This new approach to Betterment’s design represents a synthesis of a large body of customer-driven insights, and as with all of our work, we hope it meets your expectations. While we try to avoid major changes to how we architect Betterment; we think this change is worth it. So, we hope you like where we ended up, and if you don’t, tell us why. We’re listening.

Investments: Not FDIC Insured • No Bank Guarantee • May Lose Value. Investing in securities involves risks, and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. Before investing, consider your investment objectives and Betterment's charges and expenses. Betterment's internet-based services are designed to assist clients in achieving discrete financial goals. They are not intended to provide comprehensive tax advice or financial planning with respect to every aspect of a client's financial situation and do not incorporate specific investments that clients hold elsewhere. For more details, see our Form ADV Part 2 and other disclosures. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and the likelihood of investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature. Not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities in jurisdictions where Betterment is not registered. Market Data by Xignite.